The plot got pretty ridiculous by the end, with giant sci-fi gunships, zombies, and superpower energy drinks. But on my second playthrough, little things started slowly sneaking up on my conscience.
I loved the storyline, the writing, voice acting, characterization, the gameplay felt polished…it was everything I loved about SR4 without the parts I didn’t like. Instantly I fell in love with the series all over again, and Saints Row 3 became my favorite open-world sandbox game. I yearned for the early portion of the game when you had only your firearms and normal human abilities, and finally installed Saints Row 3 in order to get a whole game of that. The virtual reality setting didn’t help with that nagging feeling that even in-universe nothing I did mattered. I fell in love with the zany no-hold’s-barred freedom of Saints Row 4, and quickly decided it was my favorite open-world sandbox game, but the superpowers thing got old after a while because I felt detached from my character.
I played the Saints Row games in reverse order (not counting the first, which never came out on PC so I haven’t played it), and it was a very odd experience.
